The Death of Il Divo: Andreotti and Modern Italy

The Death of Il Divo: Andreotti and Modern
Italy

Giulio Andreotti was a creature of the
Italian post-war scene, with its astonishing volatility and
kaleidoscopic deals. Unlike his opponents, he proved
astonishingly versatile. He seemingly occupied every notable
position in Italian cabinets he could before his death at
the age of 94. He was elected to parliament in 1946, and
proved to be a masterful if ruthless architect in shaping
Alcide de Gasperi’s Christian Democracy Party. During the
Second World War, he proved busy cultivating the contacts
among the Catholic establishment that would prove crucial in
subsequent decades.

The odd feature of this behaviour was
that he always seemed to exert influence from the shadows, a
dealmaker who would, so went the popular depiction, been
welcomed by the devil. He was prime minister seven times. He
was minister of the interior, defense and foreign minister
at stages. He was always stepping into the
limelight.

Andreotti professionalised politics, making its
pursuit inseparable from him as a being. He gravitated to
power in the manner of lustful desire, a creature of heat
who seemingly operated in the manner of that Italian
expression that it is far better to have power than shag.
(These are hardly mutually exclusive, but governing can have
its distractions.)

Andreotti took the discussion of power
to even greater limits than his contemporary, the former
U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who often remarked
about its aphrodisiacal qualities. “Power is a disease one
has no desire to be cured of.” It was a disease he
laboured under continuously. From his vantage point as life
senator, which he became in 1991, he used his votes to
scupper governments and support others in the chess piece
nightmare of Italian politics.

Ill Divo, an appellation
taken from Julius Caesar (Divo Giulio), had something of a
deadly aura about him. He evaded the net of anti-corruption
officials with an eel-like disposition. Magistrates were
frustrated no less than 27 times in their efforts to
investigate him. He was central to the Tangentopoli affair
of the 1990s that saw the fall of the Christian Democratic
Party along with four to others. But catching a divinity off
his guard is a tall order.

There were also accusations –
no less than from mafia strongmen themselves – that the
political colossus was very much involved with the Cosa
Nostra. A Palermo court accepted that claim. As always,
nothing proved simple with the suggestion, given his efforts
against the group during the 1990s.

He had been convicted
for the killing in 1979 of Carmine Pecorelli, a journalist
and editor who specialised in muck racking with a
purportedly strong link to the security services. His claim
was that the CIA and Andreotti were connected in a web of
intrigue that had resulted in the death of former prime
minister Aldo Moro at the hands of the Red Brigades. For
twenty years, the case hovered over Andreotti like a dark
hue. When it came, the sentence of 24 years was pure theatre
– he was cleared by an appeals court in 2003. Such
activity prompted the remark that he was “being blamed for
everything, except the Punic Wars because I was too young
then.”

He was also prominent at a time when his country
proved viciously fractious. In an article published in the
Political Science Quarterly (Summer, 1994), he noted
the precarious nature of the Italian state, whose
unification “was only achieved a hundred and thirty years
ago, after the country had been split for more than four
centuries into many separate States”. But never modest, he
would claim that diplomacy in its modern form was an Italian
staple, the Westphalian system a creature of Italian origin
ushered in by the work of Cardinals Giulio Mazarino and
Giulio Alberoni. It was such men, along with the future Pope
Alexander VII, that “introduced Italy’s diplomatic
customs regarding neutrality, precedence, privileges,
immunities, the diplomatic pouch, and diplomatic
couriers”.

His views on foreign policy certainly took
form during the era of Bettino Craxi, during which he was
foreign minister. While President Ronald Reagan was huffing
and puffing against the huts of the Communist world
promising star wars and arms races, Andreotti was attempting
to engage the bloc and build bridges to the Arab World. The
Reagan administration was none too impressed by the fact
that he (or his officials) warned Libya about the U.S.
attack of April 1986.

Such was the character of the man
that he seemed a simulacrum while being a substantive
political character. It was always hard to actually decipher
what his inner world. Enigma was his fulcrum. But his
dissimulation, his mystery, his secrecy and ultimately, his
callousness, are the political qualities that have made the
Italian political scene a jungle of colour and
conspiracy.

*************

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at
Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University,
Melbourne.

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